CeBIT 2013 Roundup: The coolest announcements of the show

CeBIT 2013 Roundup: The coolest announcements of the show

bywsjudd
on ‎08-03-201318:00 - last edited on ‎21-03-201417:59 by anthony_c

This week we had that other big trade show in the world of technology - CeBIT. The German trade fair, held in Hannover since 1970, is the world's largest computer expo and draws hundreds of thousands of visitors. However, in terms of mobiles and tablets it takes a back seat to the Mobile World Congress, which is held just a few days earlier in Barcelona.

Due to the size of both events though, there were still a number of new products shown at CeBIT that you'll be interested to know about. Let's round up some of the coolest.

Fujitsu shows off tablet prototypes

Fujitsu always has a big CeBIT presence and this year it showed off two new tablets: a tablet with an integrated palm reader and an ultra-premium business tablet.

Let's look at the ultra-premium business tablet first. It's called the Stylistic M702, and it offers uncommon resistance to the natural enemies of the tablet - dust and water. The tablet has IP5X, IP7X and IP8X certifications, ensuring that it can stand immersion in a meter of water for up to 30 minutes.

The other big feature of the tablet is its beefy 10,000 mAh battery, which is rated for an insane 15 hours of runtime. The tablet is high-end too, with a 1.7 GHz Tegra 3 quad-core processor, 2 GB of RAM, a 1920 x 1200 10" display, NFC, Bluetooth 4, 8 megapixel rear camera and 23 GB of storage plus expansion via micro SD. The tablet will launch with Android 4.0 but will later be upgraded to 4.1 Jelly Bean.

Sadly, there's a price to pay - €1,000. That should put the tablet out of reach of most consumers, but could be awesome for business customers who are looking for the best tablets on the market.

The other Fujitsu tablet was less exciting, but still pretty cool. It was a prototype 10" tablet that included an integrated palm reader, allowing you to lock and unlock just by holding your hand over the reader. That could be a feature that becomes standard in business tablets, although it'll have to get a lot smaller first.

Samsung Galaxy S II Plus appears

The Samsung Galaxy S II Plus is a revamped and upgraded version of the best-selling Galaxy S II smartphone of 2011. The phone includes a 1.2 GHz dual-core CPU, 1 GB of RAM and Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean. The phone's chassis has also been upgraded, with a texture more reminiscent of last year's Galaxy S III.

Coby shows off plenty of tablets

Little known manufacturer Coby has announced a string of Android tablets, at 8, 9 and 10 inches in screen size. The tablets each include fairly budget components, including a dual-core Amlogic CPU, 1 GB of RAM, 8 GB of internal storage, a microSD slot, a 0.3 megapixel front-facing camera and a useless 2 megapixel rear camera. The tablets primarily differ by their displays, which clock in at 1280 x 800 on the 10" model and 1024 x 600 on the smaller options. None of them look brilliant, could prove a success at a low enough price point.

MyMultitouch 84 inch 4K touchscreen

You thought touch-screens were only for smartphones and tablets? Think again - MyMultitouch has come out with a ridiculous 84 inch (or 7 foot) touch-enabled display that runs at a 4K (3840 x 2160) resolution. The display costs a similarly massive amount, coming in at €33,000. Still, if you want the world's largest game of Angry Birds you know what to get.

Conclusion

I hope you found these stories interesting! While there weren't many big announcements for consumers, there are still some cool products that should be awesome for businesses and will no doubt trickle down to consumer-orientated products down the line as well.